I got this email today. I don't have a real post for you, so I'll give you what I have. I like this email. If you don't like it that you most likely need to go back to your country.
~~~
The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war. My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our Country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation. My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window.
He said "Son, stand there and tell me what you see."
"I see trees and cars and our neighbor's houses," he replied.
"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush."
Our son giggled and said "OK."
"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country" my husband said.
"OK Dad, I'm pretending."
"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and pretend you see Saddam come out of his house with his wife, he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are screaming and crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and they are afraid of their father. You see all of this, son....what do you do?"
"Dad?"
"What do you do son?"
"I'd call the police, Dad."
"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations. They take your call.They listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then son?"
"Dad......... but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine.
"They don't want to, son, because they say that it is not their place or your place to get involved and that you should stay out of it," my husband says.
"But Dad...he killed her!!" my son exclaims.
"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children."
"Daddy...he kills them?"
"Yes, son, he does. What do you do?"
"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him," our son says.
"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my husband says.
"But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can't stop him by myself!!"
"WHAT DO YOU DO SON?" Our son starts to cry.
"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next, son?"
"What Daddy?"
"He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and then...he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in the window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?"
"Daddy..."
"WHAT DO YOU DO?" Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I'd close the blinds, Daddy."
My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him. "Why?"
"Because Daddy, the police are supposed to help people who need them and they won't help. You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either. They won't help me stop him. I'm afraid. I can't do it by myself, Daddy. I can't look out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things and... and... do nothing... so... I'm just going to close the blinds so I can't see what he's doing... and I'm going to pretend that it is not happening."
I start to cry. My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husband's questions and he says...
"Son"
"Yes, Daddy."
"Open the blinds because that man, He's at your front door. WHAT DO YOU DO?"
My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he says: " I DEFEND MY FAMILY, DAD!! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY SISTER, DAD!!! I'M GONNA GIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!!!!"
I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs our son to his chest and hugs him tight, and says... " It's too late to fight him, he's too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son.....you should have stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife, and his children and the old lady across the way. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before its too late," my husband whispers.
THAT scenario I just gave you is WHY we are at war with Iraq . When good men stand by and let evil happen, son, THAT is the greatest atrocity in the world. "YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!" BE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!! SUPPORT THEM!!! SUPPORT AMERICA SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS..."
Steven R Chandler, CMSgt
332 ELRS/Vehicle Management
Flight Balad Air Base , Iraq
~~~
If you made it this far I'd like to give you another thought cookie: be proud of your own country. I have respect for ethnic diversity and for the beliefs and values of other cultures, even when/if they conflict with my own. If we didn't have diversity we wouldn't have life. But, with all due respect to your native country's flags and songs and traditions, I don't want to drive down Mexico Street or Tonga Boulevard or Africa Lane. I keep my music turned down because I can enjoy it without the rest of the world having to endure it. I keep my traditions inside my house because they're mine. I celebrate my national holidays in a park because this is my country and our society allows me to do such, so you have no fucking right to get pissed at me when I do so. It is my country after all.
So please turn down your stereo and have some courtesy. Take your !Vive! la Mexico flags back to Mexico if you think it's so fucking great. If you think I'm a bigot then you can kiss my ass. I don't go to Russia and expect them to speak English, give me free insurance, not deport me for not getting the equivalent of a visa or expect them to either provide translators or give me forms in English to fill out. That's just fucked up.
I want my documentation for products sold in stores to be in American unless they're strictly import, like Japanese candies or real Belgian chocolates. I want my billboards along American highways to be in fucking American English. That's the language here. I don't want to pay $6000 / yr for health insurance because we're treating illegal immigrants for free. I don't want to get paid shit wages because we have a bunch of illegal immigrants who will build computers for minimum wage when the job should pay at least $12. And I'm really fucking tired of having to search and search for a job so hard when I'm over qualified because of this affirmative action horse shit. So, mister HR man, you don't want to seem racist so you're going to hire a whole bunch of people who don't put Caucasian on their application? What you're really doing is practicing government protected bigotry.
Why is it so hard for a single white male, 18-35 to get a job? Because we're hiring a) illegal immigrants, b) unqualified non-white-male peoples to make the fucking ACLU happy and c) everyone else who isn't "better off than everyone else". Let me tell you something really god damned important right now, just to set the record straight: I'm 25, white, have a bachelors degree in Computer Science, 10+ years of customer service experience, 10+ years of production line experience, a clean driving record, can read and write fluently and precisely, and am more qualified for 90% of the jobs I've applied for. But I've lost all of them to: illegal immigrants that needed to have a translator both in the work place and while they were filling out their applications; unwed white mothers 18-25 who can't type, lift heavy objects and have made the business revolve around their schedule; people who haven't completed high school, let alone even attended college; and a myriad of others who simply weren't qualified for the positions. Because of all of this I have a job that barely pays my bills, have to live with my Mom, I can't have any health insurance at all because it's too expensive and I have to work twice as hard to get half of the money that my background, experience and education should get me.
My solution to all of the above
1. Stop breeding: stupid; thievery; dishonesty; and children who think it's okay to do any of the aforementioned.
2. Stop stealing resources from everyone else
3. Deport all illegal immigrants, no questions asked. If you're country is broken then fix it. We don't walk away from problems here in the US.
4. Keep your shit to yourself, even if you think it smells like fucking roses.
5. Learn at least some of the language and customs of wherever you visit.
6. Visit, don't stay.
7. Be nice to others. You'd be amazed at how much better you feel. (And being nice does not include handing everything you have over, but it does mean that you can take action against those who try to take everything from you. Unless you want parasites like tapeworms and leeches all over you. Then you can go make your own fucking country.)
If you don't like what I've said then you probably shouldn't have read it. If you did and agree good for you because you've realized that we have a serious problem. If you read it and hated it then you have a serious problem. I'm willing to help others but not at the expense of 'me and mine'. And if you know how to resolve it please let me know because all I have are suggestions and everyone's too afraid to speak up (see story above).
Gryyphyn, out.
20070605
20070529
The coolest fucking thing you've ever seen...
And I promise what the title of this post says. I was turned on to it by Squall. And, now that I have it running, it's the most fun I've ever had with a computer. Including free porn.
Beryl, Compiz and Xgl
First there was Xgl, an OpenGL implementation for XWindows and X.org (etc...) and for a time it was good. But it wasn't being utilized (unless you count screen savers, which I don't). Then came Compiz and, while it's a fantastic implementation of OpenGL for the Linux desktop (thank's Novell!) there wasn't too awful much you could do with it (I can hear the complaints now...). Then came Beryl. "And on the 42nd of Juvembtober he grabbed a beer and ejoyed his work."
Beryl is the coolest goddamned thing I've ever seen for a computer. Ever. Better than the internet (well, maybe not the internet, but definitely better than the intrawebs). I'd love to be able to explain this in my usual flowery way with big words that don't make sense to 80% of the unwashed asses but I can't. Words fail. So I'll let YouTube do it for me:
That's only a little bit of what it can do. Three hours fucking around with it and I've only played with maybe half. Aero can kiss ma ass (could from the start, but yeah). Aqua, I love you and you're easy to use, but I like Beryl more.
Thank you Linus
Let us give thanks to that which started it all. To the tiniest of programs which runs the largest of computers. To the innocuous little guy that keeps everything running, never stopping, never complaining, and only rarely panicking (usually due to some stupid BKAC (think PEBKAC) error). That fantastic monolithic creation called the kernel and it's creator, the Helsinki Hellian (I don't know either...), Linus Torvalds. I tip my hat to you sir for showing the way and ignoring the people who said it couldn't be done, shouldn't be done or wouldn't be done. We (now this is where you all put fingers to brow) salute you. Semper fu, tarry on.
Gryyphyn, out.
Beryl, Compiz and Xgl
First there was Xgl, an OpenGL implementation for XWindows and X.org (etc...) and for a time it was good. But it wasn't being utilized (unless you count screen savers, which I don't). Then came Compiz and, while it's a fantastic implementation of OpenGL for the Linux desktop (thank's Novell!) there wasn't too awful much you could do with it (I can hear the complaints now...). Then came Beryl. "And on the 42nd of Juvembtober he grabbed a beer and ejoyed his work."
Beryl is the coolest goddamned thing I've ever seen for a computer. Ever. Better than the internet (well, maybe not the internet, but definitely better than the intrawebs). I'd love to be able to explain this in my usual flowery way with big words that don't make sense to 80% of the unwashed asses but I can't. Words fail. So I'll let YouTube do it for me:
That's only a little bit of what it can do. Three hours fucking around with it and I've only played with maybe half. Aero can kiss ma ass (could from the start, but yeah). Aqua, I love you and you're easy to use, but I like Beryl more.
Thank you Linus
Let us give thanks to that which started it all. To the tiniest of programs which runs the largest of computers. To the innocuous little guy that keeps everything running, never stopping, never complaining, and only rarely panicking (usually due to some stupid BKAC (think PEBKAC) error). That fantastic monolithic creation called the kernel and it's creator, the Helsinki Hellian (I don't know either...), Linus Torvalds. I tip my hat to you sir for showing the way and ignoring the people who said it couldn't be done, shouldn't be done or wouldn't be done. We (now this is where you all put fingers to brow) salute you. Semper fu, tarry on.
Gryyphyn, out.
20070427
Fink Ployd (aka. From the Middle of Fucking Nowhere)
So, here I am in MOFN (middle of fucking nowhere), also known as Wyoming. I'm on a road trip with my mom, heading for the hills and relaxation. It's been a while since I've taken a vacation and I'll tell you, it's very welcome.
We're almost to our destination, a fantastic little town called Steamboat Springs in the northern part of Colorado. So far on this trip I've used Pai (my Macbook for those not in the know) to write a spreadsheet, listen to music, watch a movie and take a cool picture (which I'll apparently have to load later. DA isn't playing nice... :( ).
We were in the stretch between Evanston and Rock Springs when Queen came on. I didn't think about the song until my mom looked over at me and said “Waynes World!”. We just couldn't help but sing the refrain WW style. God, we're such nerds...
We've listened to everything from Ozzy to Queen to, now, the Stones. I asked her at one point “what the hell did people do on long trips when all there was was the occasional AM radio station?” I've never had to deal without music on a trip. Now I'm a little spoiled. I have a laptop with a DVD drive and a ton of battery life (I'm on hour 5 right now, after the music, movie and everything else). We truly are the most fortunate generation to come so far.
We're old enough to remember what values are. We know what 'the look' is. We know that when someone says “no” they mean it and, if they're older, you damn well better listen. But we also get the most benefit from technology. I've grown up with computers, almost from their mainstream inception. Our level of education (for those of us who aren't extremely freaking lazy) is higher than it has ever been. We're catching up to the eastern countries, something that hasn't happened before.
The new generation, on the other hand... lazy bunch of fuckers. They don't know how to spell and rely on Windows to do it for them. They don't know how to add, they have calculators for that. They get away with murder because their parents are too lazy and/or self-absorbed to punish them. They get pampered because mommy and daddy are indulgent pricks. And I'll be damned if I've seen many that know what work is.
Now see, this is what happens when I get time to write. I bitch and complain. My whole point for this entry is I'm having a good time, I'm relaxing, and I fully intend on not doing a lick of work while I'm here. Have a nice day everyone! Burn some incense, make some tea, sit under a shade tree with your significant other and enjoy being alive. They're rare moments and we should all embrace them when we have the chance.
Dumb fucker of the... how long has it been now?
It's fun to laugh at people. I laugh at myself all the time. But there's just some people who make your muscles hurt with all the laughing at them.
We recently lost one of those. Joseph Barbera, beloved creator of many cartoons I grew up with like The Flintstones and The Jetsons, passed on to the great drawing board in the sky. I honestly thought that everybody in the world knew who he was, even if it took a little prompting by mentioning a cartoon he worked on (we all forget things)...
But this person... so help me... One of my coworkers looked at me and said “What movies was he in?” Blank stares all around. “Well was he in TV shows?” Again with the looks. “Well if he wasn't anything important like an actor then why do you care?”
This caused two reactions, anger being the first. How could you not know many kids' secondary heroes? The man basically invented the SatAM genre for hell's sake! The second reaction was contemplative. Has our society really bred people to not care who someone is unless they're the ones on the screen? Don't we care anymore about the people doing most of the work? Cause I'll promise you right the fuck now that the actors do only about 25% of the work on anything. The months, sometimes years, that go in to pre- and post-production for something like that are what really makes it happen.
Author's note: The title... yeah. Apparently after six hours in a car Pink Floyd becomes 'Fink Ployd'... blame my mom!
Gryyphyn, out.
Section-9
We're almost to our destination, a fantastic little town called Steamboat Springs in the northern part of Colorado. So far on this trip I've used Pai (my Macbook for those not in the know) to write a spreadsheet, listen to music, watch a movie and take a cool picture (which I'll apparently have to load later. DA isn't playing nice... :( ).
We were in the stretch between Evanston and Rock Springs when Queen came on. I didn't think about the song until my mom looked over at me and said “Waynes World!”. We just couldn't help but sing the refrain WW style. God, we're such nerds...
We've listened to everything from Ozzy to Queen to, now, the Stones. I asked her at one point “what the hell did people do on long trips when all there was was the occasional AM radio station?” I've never had to deal without music on a trip. Now I'm a little spoiled. I have a laptop with a DVD drive and a ton of battery life (I'm on hour 5 right now, after the music, movie and everything else). We truly are the most fortunate generation to come so far.
We're old enough to remember what values are. We know what 'the look' is. We know that when someone says “no” they mean it and, if they're older, you damn well better listen. But we also get the most benefit from technology. I've grown up with computers, almost from their mainstream inception. Our level of education (for those of us who aren't extremely freaking lazy) is higher than it has ever been. We're catching up to the eastern countries, something that hasn't happened before.
The new generation, on the other hand... lazy bunch of fuckers. They don't know how to spell and rely on Windows to do it for them. They don't know how to add, they have calculators for that. They get away with murder because their parents are too lazy and/or self-absorbed to punish them. They get pampered because mommy and daddy are indulgent pricks. And I'll be damned if I've seen many that know what work is.
Now see, this is what happens when I get time to write. I bitch and complain. My whole point for this entry is I'm having a good time, I'm relaxing, and I fully intend on not doing a lick of work while I'm here. Have a nice day everyone! Burn some incense, make some tea, sit under a shade tree with your significant other and enjoy being alive. They're rare moments and we should all embrace them when we have the chance.
Dumb fucker of the... how long has it been now?
It's fun to laugh at people. I laugh at myself all the time. But there's just some people who make your muscles hurt with all the laughing at them.
We recently lost one of those. Joseph Barbera, beloved creator of many cartoons I grew up with like The Flintstones and The Jetsons, passed on to the great drawing board in the sky. I honestly thought that everybody in the world knew who he was, even if it took a little prompting by mentioning a cartoon he worked on (we all forget things)...
But this person... so help me
This caused two reactions, anger being the first. How could you not know many kids' secondary heroes? The man basically invented the SatAM genre for hell's sake! The second reaction was contemplative. Has our society really bred people to not care who someone is unless they're the ones on the screen? Don't we care anymore about the people doing most of the work? Cause I'll promise you right the fuck now that the actors do only about 25% of the work on anything. The months, sometimes years, that go in to pre- and post-production for something like that are what really makes it happen.
Author's note: The title... yeah. Apparently after six hours in a car Pink Floyd becomes 'Fink Ployd'... blame my mom!
Gryyphyn, out.
Section-9
20070409
Fuck AIM and the jackass who wrote it
First, this won't be in my usual format as I'm still working on another big piece.
AIM is a piece of crap, as is AOL. It's not user friendly if you know how a mouse works rather than just how to use it. You can't upload your own pictures like you can with every other IM client I've ever used. And god forbid you want to keep your running processes down because it requires three.
Here's the message AOL: bite my pasty white ass. Let the big kids make the useful stuff. You can stick to being one of the last, sorry companies offering dial-up for damn near the same price as cable service and cram the second worst application ever conceived right up your pretentious ass.
Gryyphyn, out.
AIM is a piece of crap, as is AOL. It's not user friendly if you know how a mouse works rather than just how to use it. You can't upload your own pictures like you can with every other IM client I've ever used. And god forbid you want to keep your running processes down because it requires three.
Here's the message AOL: bite my pasty white ass. Let the big kids make the useful stuff. You can stick to being one of the last, sorry companies offering dial-up for damn near the same price as cable service and cram the second worst application ever conceived right up your pretentious ass.
Gryyphyn, out.
20070319
Quickie...
Just a quickie for everyone: I'm working on a full-fledged article right now. Couple things to think about while you wait:
Linux would not exist were it not for Linus Torvalds (no shit, right?) But it also wouldn't exist were it not for Richard Stallman and Bill Gates too. I can't wait for the flame war this one might start...
I've said many times, thanks to Squall, that Emacs isn't a text editor, it's an operating system. But I saw something new recently, that it's a thermonuclear word processor. Just kinda funny.
Last, if you want to see what the spurning thoughts for this article were, go to here:
http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html
and here:
http://codev2.cc/
Gryyphyn, out.
Linux would not exist were it not for Linus Torvalds (no shit, right?) But it also wouldn't exist were it not for Richard Stallman and Bill Gates too. I can't wait for the flame war this one might start...
I've said many times, thanks to Squall, that Emacs isn't a text editor, it's an operating system. But I saw something new recently, that it's a thermonuclear word processor. Just kinda funny.
Last, if you want to see what the spurning thoughts for this article were, go to here:
http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html
and here:
http://codev2.cc/
Gryyphyn, out.
20070306
Fanfiction
20070305
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